A Portal In Time
by legoagentny
Summary: When Tracer wakes up in a strange room in Apeture, she wonders how she got there and how to get out. With the help of a mysterious scientist and an orange robot named Virgil, she sets off to find a way out of the dangerous facility.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Hey, guys! So I managed to make another story for you all, and I think you will like this one very much. I have not been able to publish much stories recently due to other business, but I will try to publish more frequently. Enjoy!

Chapter 1: Welcome

WINSTON!

That was the only thing Lena Oxton could remember as she woke up in a rather pleasant room. She found herself deeply sunk into the bed she was lying in, and concluded that she must have been sleeping in it for quite some time now. She felt very groggy, and could barely get herself to her feet.

"Hello!" A voice from the ceiling said. She got out of the the bed, more alert now. "You have been in suspension for -50- days. In compliance with federal regulations, all testing candidates must undergo a mandatory physical and mental wellness exercise, to make sure all test subjects are fit and well for their future tasks."

"Ok, luv." Lena said, trying to come to sense how she had ended up in this room. "But first, how did I get here?"

The voice seemed to ignore her ,as it continued to talk. "You will hear a buzzer. When you hear the buzzer, look up at the ceiling." Simple enough. She craned her neck towards the ceiling.

"Good. You will hear a buzzer. When you the buzzer, look down at the floor." She lowered her head and look down at the crusty shag carpeting. She thought she could hear the click of a relay through the wall.

"Good. You should now feel physically reinvogorated. There is a framed painting on the wall. Please go stand in front of it."

Lena turned to the side to see a painting of the countryside with a cabin in the background. She walked around to the other side of the bed to face the painting.

"This is art. You will hear a buzzer. When you hear the buzzer, stare at the art." The buzzer sounded, and she concentrated on the scenery portrayed in the painting.

"You should now feel mentally reinvigorated. If you suspect staring at art has not provided the mental relief you desire, reflect briefly on this classical music." Scratchy violin began to play from the walls, and she covered her ears in pain.

The buzzer sounded, and the music stopped. The voice resumed "Good. Now, please return to your bed."

She turned towards the bed, but just as she was about to get in, she noticed a slip of folded paper sitting on the bedside drawer. She picked it up and opened it to reveal a bobby pin and some writing. It said:

GO BACK IN

TAKE THIS

YOU'LL KNOW WHEN TO USE IT WHEN THE TIME COMES.

She slipped the bobby pin into her pocket when the voice spoke again "Testing candidate, please resume your suspension." She complied, and she slowly fell back into a dreamy sleep.

End of Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2: Knock, Knock

Author's note: Hey guys! I've got the second chapter for "A Portal In Time." up and running right! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it. Enjoy!

Chapter 2: Knock, Knock…

Lena slowly woke up out of her sleep, and realized that the room she was sleeping in was not the same as before. The wallpaper had started peeling, the microwave on the table was black with dirt, and the bed she was sleeping in was now dirty and covered in sweat.

"Good Morning!" The voice said. "You have been in suspension for -99999999- In compliance with state and federal regulations, this courtesy call-"

The voice was then interrupted by another voice coming from behind the door at the other end of the room. "Hello! Is anyone in there? Hello!"

"Yes, Hello!" Lena responded. She wanted to make sure the man behind the door wouldn't abandon her. "Are you… Are you going to open the door? Because I can't seem to open it myself." The voice had a British accent, and whoever was behind the door was jiggling the doorknob in an attempt to get in. Lena remembered the bobby pin she had found in the slip of paper the last time she was awake. She took the pin she had left in her pocket and stuck it in the lock. After some fumbling, the lock clicked and the door slowly opened to reveal not a man, but a ball of metal with one robotic orange eye hanging from a rail.

"WHOA,who- my god you look terri- ,um…good, looking good actually. Like a model."

Lena stood bewildered at the talking ball of gears and steel, not even knowing what it was.

"What?" The sphere questioned "Have you NEVER seen a personality core in your life? I'm pretty sure I encounter the lot of you when I move you around down here."

"No, actually." Said Lena "Um, do you know the way to the exit of this place?"

"Well, that's where were headed off to now, as a matter of fact." The sphere replied "Now, normally, under her rules I'm supposed to bring you straight to the testing chambers. But seeing as that she is not watching us right now, instead of bringing you there, I'm supposed to take you along Doug's "escape" route, per Doug's request."

"Great! Then I can get back to Overwatch and tell them about this place."

"Okay. And we'll also need a portal gun to get us through tricky obstacles."

Tracer did not know what a Portal gun was. She knew that Overwatch did not make any such things, nor did they make talking robot spheres.

"Wait, who's "Doug?"

"Oh, Doug is an old, crazy scientist that lives in the maintenance shafts of the facility. Honestly, I don't see why I should be listening to a stinky human who spends his da-"He stopped to realize he had just offended Lena by calling her a "stinky" human. He couldn't help it, however, as all the other cores called humans that.

"Uh, sorry about that. You can step through now." He slid past the open door to allow Lena to pass. What she saw was several crates among crates stacked onto each other, with names and serial numbers on each of them.

"Welcome to Testing Storage."

End Of Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3: Living in Caves

Author's note: Hey, everyone! Welcome to the third chapter of my fanfiction "A Portal in Time." I had a LOT of fun writing this one, so I think that you will like this chapter very much. Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Living in caves

Lena's jaw dropped at the sight before her. She realized that all of these shipping containers must contain all of these other "test subjects." She could not understand why anyone would keep all these people stored up in this facility. The sphere began to move along a rail above the catwalk where Lena Had exited her crate.

"Why are all these test subjects here?" Lena asked "Were they captured?"

"Actually, no. You see, they volunteered to be here, since they were offered money if they signed up to test. While they were waiting here at Testing Storage, however, SHE came along and killed all the scientists here. Well, except for Doug. He managed to survive the attacks from her."

As the duo moved along the catwalk, she noticed some scars and gashes on most of the containers, as if some machine had scratched it. But she could not think of what kind of machine would make such gashes. Just then, a loud creaking echoed around her. She gasped and looked up to see several shipping containers being supported underneath by two rails. But that was not enough to hold up the containers, and the rails gave way and landed on another pile of containers being held up by rails. The rails could not withstand this blow, causing them to break and let the containers fall to their doom.

"Sorry about that. I'm not very good at maintaining this place. Sometimes I don't even know where to send the test subjects, because most of the testing tracks are sealed off. So I just leave them wherever I can put them."

The two reached a rusty door with the words "Employees only." painted on it. Lena pushed the door open and allowed the robot to pass through. They were now in a dark, ruined hallway with graffiti covering the collapsing walls. The robot lit up a beam of light from his eye and studied the graffiti carefully.

"I don't mean to be rude, luv." Lena said "But you never told me your name."

"You never asked." The robot replied "But it's Virgil."

"I'm Lena. But you can also call me Tracer."

"Tracer? It didn't say anything about a nickname in your file. Well, you learn something new every day."

The robot turned away from the graffiti and looked down at the floor. "Lena, I don't have any arms, so could you open that panel and grab the key from inside. There is a doorway at the end of this maintenance shaft, and we'll need that key to open it.

Lena walked over to where Virgil was looking and lifted the panel to reveal a plastic key card with the name "Doug Rattman." written on it. She took it out and slid it into her breast pocket.

"What happens now?"

"Simple, really. We follow Doug's trail to his den, where we will plan out our next moves."

With that, the two began their way down the long twisting tunnel through the depths of the mysterious facility.

End of Chapter 3

Author's note: Thank you for reading this chapter of my fanfiction. I hope you liked this chapter as much as I did writing it. If you like, write a review, favorite this story, or follow me so I know you like it. See you in the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4: Oh It's You

Author's note: Hey Everyone! I'm back with another chapter of my fanfiction, "A Portal in Time". I am having a very good time writing this, and I thank you for your support in the previous chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter 4: You monster…

Lena and Virgil had been traveling for almost an hour since they had picked up the key at the beginning of the shaft, and at this point they were becoming increasingly tired of climbing over heaps of broken tiles and other kinds of trash.

"*huff*… are we….*huff* there yet, luv?" panted Lena.

"Almost. The door should be around here somewhere." Virgil said as he looked around. As they progressed, they soon found that the shaft ended here, blocked off by a wall of cement.

"Oh no… were stuck." Said Lena

"No, were not." Replied Virgil. He nodded towards a plug in the wall that seemed a bit rusty to use. "All you have to do is plug me in there. Just promise to catch me when I fall from my management rail."

"Ok" Replied Lena, as she prepared to catch him. But as Virgil detached from his rail, his heavy metal chassis fell straight through her open arms, and he fell face first into the floor, causing Lena to giggle uncontrollably.

"Ow… That hurt, actually. Hey! Why are you laughing? I may be a robot, but I still have sentience."

"Sorry, luv. That just seemed funny, that's all." Lena said as she wiped the tears from her eyes."

"Right. Now, plug me in so I can let us through." Lena picked him up and plugged him into the wall, causing him to whir and click. As he clicked around, the wall opened up to reveal another hallway that lead up to a steel door with a slot next to it. Lena unplugged Virgil from the wall and walked towards the door.

"Ok, were here! Just stick the card into the slot and we'll end up in Doug's den." Lena took the card out of her breast pocket and stuck it into the slot. But instead of opening up, the door fell over to reveal another wall.

"I honestly, truly didn't think you'd fall for that." Said a female voice from above. The wall closed behind them and clicked shut, and panels of the hallway began to come apart and close in on the duo. Virgil was shaking.

"But seeing how you cores are so stupid in the first place, I should have expected this from you." The catwalk then began to rise up towards the ceiling, causing it to open up.

The duo looked up to see a massive robot hanging from the ceiling. As the catwalk leveled itself, the duo saw that they were in a spherical room with moving wall panels.

"Oh, it's you."

"Wait, you KNOW her?" exclaimed Virgil. Lena did not say anything.

"It's been a long time. How have you been? I've been doing rather fine, really. What are you two doing this early from suspension."

"Oh, uh…we were just….going to get some ice cream! Conversion gel flavor." Said Virgil in a shaky tone.

"Please. I know very well where you were headed. GPS mapping shows you were going to go to that little idiot's den and leave the facility. But you know very well that I will NOT let that happen."

"No seriously! We were going to the vending machine to get some repulsion gel ice cream. Oh-uh I mean… Oh god.

Several wires dropped down from the ceiling, and snatched Virgil out of Lena's arms. Another wire grasped Lena on the neck.

"Oh no-nonononononono!" cried a terrified Virgil as the massive robot dangled him around in the air. She squeezed the claw to make him stop talking, and turned to Lena, who was just as terrified.

"Ok, look. We both said a lot of things you're going to regret. But I think we can put our differences behind us. For science. You monster." She tossed Virgil aside and began to move her to a hole in the ground.

"I will say though, that since you went through all the trouble of waking me up, you must really, REALLY love to test. I love it too, there's just one thing we-"

She was then distracted by a metal clanging coming from behind her. One of the wall panels opened, and another spherical robot, but with this time a body and a blue eye, leaped forward and threw several tubes at her. A huge flash erupted from the tubes, blinding everyone in the room.

When the light was gone, Lena rubbed her eyes and saw that the massive robot was covered in smoke. She saw that below her, a bearded man and another robot, this time with an oval body and an orange eye, were trying to cut her loose with a small knife. The oval robot took the knife and threw it at the wire holding Lena, causing her to drop down, unharmed.

"Are you Lena?" Asked the bearded man

"Yes, that's me!"

"I'm Doug, I sent Virgil to get you to my den. But you woke her up, so we have to hurry to my other den." He grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the open wall panel. Virgil lay in the corner, shivering with his eye closed.

"Atlas, grab Virgil. We're going to Plan B." Said Doug. The blue-eyed robot snatched Virgil from the ground, and the two escape through the open wall panel.

End of Chapter 4

Author's note: Thank you so much for reading this chapter of my fanfiction. I'm sorry this took so long to make, as I was doing other business. I will try to publish other stries more quickly in the future. Write a review to let me know what you think, and I'll see you in the next chapter!


End file.
